Abu Ghuraib Iraq
Abu Ghraib
The New york Times Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Associated Press
Before the fall of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, a sprawling penal
compound west of Baghdad, was notorious within Iraq as a place where
torture and executions were commonplace. It became notorious throughout
the world in 2004 after photographs were made public of American
soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners there.
The images of Iraqi detainees being beaten and sexually humiliated at
the prison became a touchstone for Arab and Muslim rage against the
United States in the spring of 2004, and a potent recruiting tool for
insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere.
After the fall of Mr. Hussein to an American-led invasion in 2003,
there were calls for Abu Ghraib to be demolished. But members of Iraq's
governing council, one of whom had been imprisoned there for 13 years,
resisted, saying it was needed as a prison.
After the prisoner abuse by the Americans became public, President
Bush proposed to raze the Abu Ghraib complex, but an American military
judge ordered that it be preserved as a crime scene.
Nine American soldiers were ultimately found guilty in the Abu Ghraib
abuse case, which also prompted a number of military and Congressional
investigations.
The prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib led to a number of changes in
the American detainee system in Iraq. Investigations found there had
been a shortage of professional interrogators to handle the growing
number of detainees, and units inside Abu Ghraib had turned to untrained
military policemen and policewomen for help.
In March 2006, the American military announced plans to remove its remaining prisoners from the site.
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